1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable digital device for providing digital broadcasting information through an outer display unit of the apparatus and a method thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, with the increasing research into wireless Internet technology, the mobility of portable digital devices such as notebook computers, laptop computers, PDAs (personal digital assistant), etc., which have gradually made inroads into markets for desktop computers, has become the center of attention. As the display performance of notebook computers, among other devices, gradually increases, portable digital devices do not fall behind desktop computers any more in expressing multimedia information. Accordingly, the combination of a portable digital device and multimedia technology has become an important issue in the markets for portable digital devices.
Also, with a growing interest in digital broadcasting, researches for practical use of DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) and DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) have been continuously made. DMB is a digital type multimedia broadcasting that can provide sound quality equal to that of a CD, data or video service with a superior fixed/mobile receiving quality. DMB may be divided into a terrestrial signal DMB that uses a terrestrial signal as a transmission means, and a satellite DMB that uses a satellite as a transmission means. The important attributes of DMB are ‘multichannel’, ‘multimedia’, and ‘mobility’. The portable computer such as a notebook computer, laptop computer and tablet computer, and the portable digital device such as a PDA, cellular phone, etc., have been spotlighted as important products in the fields of DMB and DAB, which satisfy the mobility that the DMB receiver should have and provide diverse multimedia information.
EMA (Extended Mobile Access) is one of functions of a mobile Internet PC proposed by Intel Corporation, and is one of new use models. The EMA is a technique which makes it possible to perform simple works even in a state that the portable digital device is shut. SNS (Simplified Network Selection) is a technique for improving the accessibility of the notebook computer and automatically makes the notebook computer launch onto a network. LBC (Location-Based Computing) indicates the location of the notebook computer for location-based services, and makes it possible to use various applications based on this location information.
The EMA technique, which has been proposed as a technique that can be combined with the portable digital device, makes it possible to use the functions of the portable digital device even in a state that a main display unit of the portable digital device is off or not in use. However, the corresponding techniques proposed up to now are merely for confirming mails or schedules, and cannot keep pace with the recent techniques related to improved portable digital devices. As the reception of digital broadcasts through a notebook computer, laptop computer, etc., becomes an important function of the portable digital device, it causes a problem to wholly operate the portable digital device only for the reception of the digital broadcasts. For example, it causes a problem in power consumption and inconvenience in use to completely operate the portable digital device even if the user only intends to listen to a digital broadcast by obtaining sound information during movement of the portable digital device. Accordingly, it is necessary to provide an apparatus for easily listening to and adjusting digital broadcasts in a portable digital device as the power consumption and the inconvenience in use are reduced.
Korean Utility Model Unexamined Publication No. 1999-0015114 discusses an auxiliary display unit is provided on the outside of a portable computer to display a playback state of a DVD being executed by the portable computer. Korean Patent No. 10-0337604 discusses an internal operation state of the computer such as a present state of power supply. However, these functions simply relate to connections with the playback function or the internal state of the computer, but they have problems in using digital broadcasting information.
Accordingly, there is a need to solve the above-mentioned problems by providing a portable digital device for providing digital broadcasting information through an outer display unit of the apparatus and a method thereof which can receive or confirm digital broadcasting (i.e., DAB and DMB) information through the outer display unit of the apparatus.